Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has, in the back half of the season, finally shown signs that it’s becoming the show we’ve wanted all along: Full of Marvel B-listers kicking ass. And now it’s Patton Oswalt’s turn to outshine the regular cast.

“When they first told me the character’s name, I’ll admit the first thing I did is I went on Wikipedia and looked up the M.O.D.O.K. character to see if Koenig was maybe his name before he became M.O.D.O.K., but it wasn’t,” laughs Oswalt. “They keep on talking about the Clairvoyant in the show and I’m like, ‘is that M.O.D.O.K.? Am I M.O.D.O.K.?”

Dammit, now we want to see Oswalt as MODOK. Although we suppose the show has enough acronyms.

Eric Koenig: Bad news Agent Coulson
Agent Coulson: Oh?
Eric Koenig: Your entire team of agents just go hit by a bus
Agent Coulson: Even Sky?
Eric Koenig: Especially Sky. They’re probably not dead, but you’ll never see them again.
Agent Coulson: What will I do?
Eric Koenig: You’ll be getting a new, and far less bland, team assigned to you by next fall.

I’ve been defending the show since it started, and there were a few times I even did so out of something other than duty. Hell, go way back, and you’ll see that I’ve defended Skye more than the entire rest of the internet put together. But it’s getting harder and harder to defend the show at all.

Even with Patton Oswalt, Bill Paxton, Shepherd Book, The SLJ, and anyone else I might have missed, there’s just not enough character to the people on the Bus. Deathlok? That’s not Deathlok– that’s Cyborg Scale-earning actor we can afford. Agents Cheekbones and Boobs just don’t make me give a damn about what happens to them. Even Coulson has suffered as his background gets more half-heartedly developed. The only growth shown by any of the characters has come from May and Fitz, and May’s getting killed off before the end of season 1 because Ming-Na Wen signed a 1-year deal and isn’t going to go down with the ship.

So, why not have the whole Bus go down in flames in some epic way that leaves only Fitz and Coulson around to try and rebuild? Instead of this big, lumbering organization, why not have Fitz become the tech-genius/ field agent he’s shown he can be, and let him and Coulson build a new group out of– god forbid– qualified agents?

Whatever happens, there’s another season coming, and there’s been enough groundwork lain that it could be really good. I’can almost picture Joss Whedon saying, “I’ll do this show, but I’m not going to have a first season so good that everyone cries when it’s prematurely cancelled,” then ordering up the directionless mish-mash that SHIELD has become, saving the good stuff for season 2.

Also, if we’re taking bets, Skye is toast. The show keeps trying too hard to make us care about her; I’m guessing she dies in a noble sacrifice as her superpowers come to the fore and turns into a computer program or something next season.

I have already given up on your show. However, if you decide to give us a twist by making Eric Koenig an alias for Dirk Anger, I will buy all the episodes I have missed, watch them three times each, and then proceed to never miss another episode again.

“Our show full of blandly attractive bland people is failing!”
“Let’s bring on talented people who aren’t blandly attractive.”
“What could they possibly bring to the table?”
“Charisma, acting ability, and a sense of humor?”
“It’s…It’s almost like this is how we should have cast the show in the first place.”
“WHOA. Let’s not go crazy. America loves a white man with a fresh haircut.”

I watched season 1 sporadically when it was on. I liked it but had some gripes. The. I rewatched it on Netflix in preparation for season 2, and I’m amazed at how well season 1 does the second time around. Other than the requisite CW soap opera stuff, the way Arrow builds Ollie’s universe is almost perfect, in the eyes of this lifelong comic book nerd.